Newfoundland and Labrador to issue apology to residential school survivors

APTN NewsThe government of Newfoundland and Labrador will issue its own apology to people who attended residential schools in the province.

Premier Dwight Ball, who will be in Happy Valley-Goose Bay on Friday when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issues an apology to survivors of people who went to the schools after 1949 – when the province joined Confederation, issued a statement Thursday.

“I wish to advise that the Provincial Government will undertake its own apology to residential school survivors in consultation with the survivors of the former residential school system and the leaders of Indigenous Governments and Organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador,” the statement said.

Newfoundland and Labrador will be the fourth province in Canada to apologize for its role in the schools as First Nation, Metis, and Inuit children were taken from their homes and sent to government-run institutions.

Ontario, Manitoba, and Alberta issued apologies in 2016.

Labrador survivors were left out of prime minister Stephen Harper’s 2008 apology because the schools were not run by the federal government at the time.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said the province is making plans to apologize.